Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.